Transitional Childhood

Abstract A new generation was coming of age just before and during the transitions. Born between the early 1960s and the mid-1970s, they retain autobiographical memories of the transitions, including their dark sides. The chapter explores the same events and landslide changes that were touched upon in the first two chapters but investigates them through the eyes of Generation 1.5’s childhood memories. What often emerges from these narratives are aspects less visible, less advertised, and more violent. Generation 1.5 grew up either to defend the transitions’ political and cultural settlements or to accuse them of having betrayed their origins. Crucial to the formation of these polarized convictions has been intergenerational memory transmission: that is, familial ‘mnemonic socialization’. The chapter discusses the political allegiances of parents and especially grandparents, who were both political subjects and close relatives. Lastly, the chapter discusses the vivid sensory imagery and powerful emotions of the transitions, which I call ‘transitional chiaroscuro’, and its effects on young Generation 1.5’s impressionable minds.